BEP Narrator:
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A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know
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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.
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Nsenga Burton.
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Dr.
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Burton.
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What do we need to know?
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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good morning and
welcome to Need to Know with Dr.
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Nsenga Burton.
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I am Dr.
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Nsenga Burton.
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Today I want to talk to you a little
bit about, uh, rest as a radical thing
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for Black people, particularly when
we're talking about Black executives,
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people who are working, um, in the
higher echelons of corporate America,
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uh, people who are, you know, Leaders
administrators, part of the C suite.
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Um, and especially, um, in
addition to people, we already
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think of need rest, right?
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Those, uh, uh, frontline workers,
people who we engage with all all the
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time, whether it's at the gas station
or your grocery store would have you.
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But I'm here to say that everybody needs
rest, whether your job is a physical 1 or
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a job that requires a lot of mental energy
and a lot of intellectual fortitude.
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If you will rest is a radical thing.
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And there's a, there are a lot
of people in general, black women
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scholars, specifically, you're doing
work in this area and talking about it.
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Um, there's a, um, on social media,
there's something called the NAP ministry.
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If you are not.
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Following that on social
media, you absolutely should.
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But 1 of the things that they are
talking about ministry is the need for
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people to recharge to rest and recharge.
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So, even today, when we're taking this
episode, it's the day before Thanksgiving.
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Even though a lot of us, including
myself, don't buy the dominant
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narrative right of Thanksgiving.
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We're like, okay, we'll just go along
with this made up holiday again.
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So we can get a couple of days off
because we know that it's, it's made up
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and it's not really based in anything
real historically factual or anything.
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So, um, but, hey, if I can get a
couple of days off to spend with
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my family, then I'll take it.
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You know, we do a lot of
that in the black community.
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So, I wanted to say that, even
if you don't believe in the
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idea, or, you know, the dominant
narrative of Thanksgiving, which is
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real and valid, you should at least
take the time that you have to rest.
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Um, and to recharge and so I know a
lot of us spend a lot of time running
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around cooking all day and all night
and serving people and having scores
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of folks come over and yet, you
know, dish duty and, you know, you
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got to clean up and all the things.
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Um, so I'd encourage you to
think about how to do holidays
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a little bit differently.
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Um, you can do, um, you know,
you have, if you can afford it,
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you can have things catered.
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You can use a black owned
business, a black owned caterer.
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Um, that's another that's a way
that you can not only feed yourself,
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but also feed your soul and help
people while you're doing it.
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Um, and then, you know, it
doesn't have to be so big.
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We have a couple of my friends
and I were talking about that.
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Um.
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A few days ago about, you know, it
doesn't have to, you don't have to have
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the turkey, and the beef, and meat,
and ham, and the beef, and the ham,
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and the turkey, and the, you know,
it doesn't have to be 25 options.
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Um, you know, a lot of folks
are vegetarian and vegan now,
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so you definitely want to
have one of those options.
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Um, and you know, for the people
who aren't, we're very clear on,
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we're not vegan or vegetarian,
you want to have a meat option.
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And, you know, based on religion,
some people don't eat pork or
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what have you, but, you know, your
family, you know, your people, but
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you don't have to have 20B items.
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It doesn't have to be a throw
down, especially because Christmas
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is right around the corner.
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And even if you don't celebrate Christmas,
Kwanzaa is right around the corner.
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All these things are
right around the corner.
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We have the opportunity to do that.
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And you have more time to do it because
many of us are working, including myself.
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Tony and I are working today, right?
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We're traveling and working.
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I work in the up until the day
before Thanksgiving, right?
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And so, you know, this idea that you
got to work up until the day before
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Thanksgiving, and then, you know, provide
the spread in honor of this fake holiday.
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It just doesn't really
make a whole lot of sense.
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So, my needs to know what I need you
to know is that it's okay to rest.
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It's okay to tell relatives.
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Listen, I have been working really hard.
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2024 has been really tough.
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So, we're not going to do Thanksgiving
this year, but I got you on Christmas,
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you know, it's okay to be like, listen,
I got 4 hours to cook something.
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You know, everybody brings something
that we do a lot of that anyway, in our
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community, people we trust because, you
know, we don't eat everybody's everything,
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but, you know, it's okay to allow a little
bit of the responsibilities to other folks
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and to use the people who are in your
household to help make things easier.
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Um.
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So, I need, you know, it's
okay to say, I need rest.
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I need time to recharge and to use this
Thanksgiving vacation uses Thanksgiving
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celebration as a vacation or time
to kind of just recharge and to get
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that 4 day weekend that you need so
that you can be your whole self and
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you can actually make it to the end
of:
2024
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Theme roll!
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Um, we barrel towards New Year's Eve.
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Following the Thanksgiving tradition.
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So give yourself a break.
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You don't have to have a ton of Christmas
decorations or holiday decorations.
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You don't have to have
25 options on your menu.
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You don't have to invite people over.
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You don't, you don't have to go nowhere.
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Like you don't.
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So if you need time to rest
and relax, uh, take it.
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And that's what I need.
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Need you to know I'm Dr.
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Nsenga Burton.
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Enjoy this time off, uh, spend it
how you like, but please think about
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giving yourself a little bit of
rest so you can be your whole self
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and your best version of yourself,
uh, for the remainder of the year.
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Okay.
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BEP Narrator: A black
executive perspective.
